1 84 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 Their fidelity Soldiers, and though true and faithful servants,
3 to their em- .
4 ployers. they could well afford to be generous to a nation
5 whose cause they prayed for the success of,
6 although obliged to aid the very people whom
7 they wished from motives of religion to see over-
8 thrown. It has always been remarked of our
9 Mussulmen servants, that they never prove unfaith-
10 ful, when well treated and regularly paid; and in the
11 contest between the Sikhs and British, the opposing
12 combatants might each number men related by
13 blood and united by the ties of one religion. This
14 remark applies still more strikingly to the hill-men
15 or Goorkhas; many of these were in the Sikh ser-
16 vice, while two battalions of the same “ little brave
17 Military spirit f€llows” composed a portion of the British army
18 of the Goork- during the campaign. Yet on either side they
19 were the same resolute, daring soldiers, disregarding
20 “kith or kin” in their strenuous endeavours to fulfil
21 their duty to their respective employers, though
22 fighting perhaps against their nearest and dearest
23 relatives. These hill-men had been ordered to the
24 plains on the first breaking out of the war, and did
25 good service in every action in which they were
26 engaged. So much did they please the Com-
27 mander-in-chief, that it was resolved to raise more
28 regiments of these hill-men, and their pensions
29 were increased to the same scale as those granted
30 to the Native soldiers of the line. When it was
31 proposed to send them to the newly acquired Doab,
32 they gave their willing consent, though from their
33 having their huts and families at Deyre and Futog,